A Survivor's Choice
by DarkLordUmbra
Summary: What happens when a childhood friend becomes a mindless, cannibalistic monster? What happens when an infection takes control of 99% of the world's population and forces what few remaining survivors there are to come together to survive? Zoey is a woman who's life is about to be... flip-turned upside down, and she must fight the people she once called friends, just to survive...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I'll be honest here and say that i'm not too sure about Hare as the name for the pre-hunter hunter. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know. **

**Let me know how you think I did. Any review, good or bad, is welcomed.**

**Enjoy, and thanks for reading this.**

**Chapter 1**

The day begins at Aldrich University in Pennsylvania and the students quickly rush out of their dorm rooms and towards their respective classes. The flu has been going around the campus, but no one realizes just how different this outbreak actually is. Occasionally, officers and scientists of CEDA have been spotted around campus but they have never bothered the students themselves. Largely, everyone has ignored them, but their steady increase in presence has prompted the university to hire a security force.

The flu, or whatever it is, has sent some students to Mercy hospital where, not surprisingly, CEDA has once again been spotted. Some believe that CEDA is somehow responsible for this virus, but the majority has accepted the announcement that the flu is under control. There are rumors flying around that other places have seen a higher rate of people infected, but they are either proven wrong, or are simply dismissed as false. There are a couple students that believe that there is something more going on than just a simple flu.

One of these students is a young woman that is skipping class and watching a zombie movie inside her dorm room. She is a young woman around her early to mid-twenties wearing a white t-shirt wrinkled from night after night of using it as pajamas, and a pair of dark blue jeans rolled up to the ankle. Her favorite red hoodie is hanging from a hook behind the door. Normally, she has her hair held back in a ponytail, but she has decided to keep it loose for now. Her sneakers are sitting under the small window.

Her cell phone rings and before the second ring start, she's already jumped out of bed and pulled it out of the pocket of her hoodie. "Mom" blinks on the small screen whenever it rings and after a couple seconds, she presses the "Send" button and brings it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Zoey, are you in class?" It's her mother, once again concerned about her daughter.

"No, mom. I didn't have class today."

"It's ten in the morning, on a _Wednesday_, and you don't have class? I find that a little hard to believe."

The young woman sighs and looks over at the small TV playing her favorite zombie movie. Grabbing the remote, she quickly hits the mute button. "Fine. I'm doing research for my class. Our professor wanted us to watch some old movies and study how each shot was made and why."

"Oh," The way her mother says it makes Zoey feel a bit on edge. "Well, just make sure you keep your grades up."

"I will."

"Alright. I'll call you tomorrow. Love you."

"Love you too, mom." With those words, she ends the call and tosses the phone onto the table before returning to her bed.

She ejects the movie and is just about to put in another one when she hears a knock on her door. She makes her way over and opens the door, but no one is on the other side to greet her. The empty hallway seems to stretch on for miles and she's just about to go back inside when she's suddenly pinned to the ground. A scream escapes her, but anyone that could have heard it is either still asleep, or is in class.

The thing that pinned her holds her arms down against the ground and grins under his hood. He is wearing a dark blue hoodie with duct tape wrapped around his biceps and wrists. Duct tape also wraps tightly around his pant legs and his knees press against her ribs. She tries to struggle against her attacker, but her efforts to get free are all countered.

"So," Her attacker says in a low voice; almost like a growl or shriek. "I heard that you like scary movies…"

Zoey instantly recognizes the voice and the pushes the man off of her. "Damn it Hare, why do you keep doing that?"

Hare, a childhood nickname given to Zoey's friend because he likes to jump around and pounce on people. He pulls down his hood and takes out the fake teeth and starts laughing. He is a young man, around Zoey's age and height, with an athletic build. He has short brown hair almost down to a buzz cut and deep brown almost black eyes. He keeps laughing and falls onto his butt.

Zoey sits up and punches him in the arm. "I told you not to pounce on me! You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," Hare apologizes through his fit of laughter. "I just couldn't resist."

Zoey punches him in the arm again and then gets to her feet. A coughing fit causes her to look down at him. She's surprised when he shakes his head when she offers to help him up. Sowly, he gets to his feet and pats himself off.

"So, why did you drop by?" She makes her way back into her dorm room and shuts the door behind them.

"What, other than to scare the gullible Zoey?" He flinches when his friend raises her fist.

"Yes, other than that." She keeps her fist raised, just in case.

"It's almost noon."

"So?" She has returned to her TV and is putting the DVD back in its case. She grabs another zombie movie and pops it into the player.

"So? It's time for me to teach you how to parkour."

"Oh that," She sits down on her bed and leans against the wall. "I'm not really in the mood for that today. I want to just sit here and watch movies."

Hare sits next to her and watches as the movie starts. "You do that everyday. I'm amazed you're able to stay in shape with what you put your body through."

"Putting up with idiots like you is exercise enough for me." She looks over at him and gives him a friendly wink.

Her friend shrugs and they both return to watching the movie. This one, like the rest in her seemingly ever growing collection, is an older movie re-mastered and squeezed into one of those cheap, multi-movie DVD's. A quick glance at the clock next to her bed makes her shoot up and pause the movie. She jumps out of bed and pulls open her drawers, searching for something deep inside.

"What's wrong?" Hare asks as he gets off the bed.

Zoey pulls out her favorite hair tie and pulls her hair back into a tight ponytail. "I was supposed to meet my dad a half an hour ago. He was going to take me to the shooting range for some practice."

"I can drive you."

She runs past him and grabs her hoodie and closes the zipper. "Appreciate the offer, but I don't think that would work. My dad doesn't like you, remember?"

Hare pulls the hood over his head. "I can't imagine why not."

"He calls you a hunter, remember? He says that you like to stalk people."

"That's only you, and I would call it stalking."

"Whatever. I have to go. I'll see you later."

Zoey leaves the room and once she's out of earshot, her friend starts coughing violently. Flecks of blood spray out onto the floor and a sudden burning feeling race through his arms and legs. He claws at his skin under his clothing and screams out in pain, but nothing works. The burning and pain eventually continue to the point where he can't take it anymore, and he collapses to the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: My original plan for this chapter was to have Zoey and Francis meet near the end, but decided against it when I remembered that I would be having them meet later on. Wouldn't make much sense to have them first meet twice, now would it?**

**As usual, any reviews, good or bad, are welcomed.**

**Enjoy, and thanks for reading.**

**Chapter 2**

While running back to her parent's home, Zoey spots a couple of strange things happening. Some people are muttering to themselves and shuffling back and forth. Others are sitting down and clawing at the ground. Strange noises are what really sets her on edge like the sound of a woman crying mournfully, or a man coughing like he just smoked a full pack of cigarettes in a couple minutes.

She finally reaches her home, but something still doesn't feel right to her. The front door, which is normally shut and locked tight, is wide open. Inside, she heard the sound of her father Wade and her mother Carolyn arguing. Ever since their divorce and her choice to go to college on a filmmaking scholarship, it has put a strain on everyone. She runs inside just in time for her mother to bump into her.

"Oh," Carolyn says, surprised. "Hello Zoey."

"Hi mom. You and dad arguing again?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Who the hell is at the door?" Wade yells out from atop the stairs.

"It's our daughter, you blind bastard!" She faces her daughter again. "I'm sorry to ask this, but could you head upstairs and grab my checkbook out of my purse?"

"Sure thing." Zoey runs upstairs, past her father, and down the hall into her mother's room. Soon after, the argument has continued and from what she can tell, it has moved into the living room. A scream stops her search early and she pushes the door open and runs into the living room to see a man clawing and biting her mother. Her father is nowhere to be seen. Zoey herself screams, which draws the attention of the attacker.

The crazed, blood-soaked man charges mindlessly at his new target. Before he can get very far, a single gunshot rings out and he drops to the ground with a bleeding bullet hole in the back of his head. Zoey's father stands a couple feet away, pointing his pistol where the man's head was a couple seconds ago. His left arm is hanging down at his side with a deep, bloody bite mark.

"Crazy little fucker," He says as he sways a couple times before leaning against a nearby wall for support. "Took a bite out of me, and then attacked Carolyn."

"Dad, we need to get you to a hospital." Zoey says while trying to stay strong for her injured father.

Wade drops the pistol and makes his way over to his ex-wife and lifts her up, cradling her in his only good arm. "Call for an ambulance. Maybe we can get her to Mercy Hospital in time."

Zoey runs into the kitchen and picks up the wall phone. She starts to dial nine and one, but before she can press the one button a second time, the phone line goes dead and her father lets out a pained scream. Upon returning to the living room, her mother has pinned her father to the ground and is ripping him apart with bloody claws and teeth. Another scream draws her infected mother's attention towards her.

What remains of Carolyn lets out a blood-curdling shriek and charges towards Zoey with her arms out wide. Seconds before she can reach her next meal, another single gunshot rings out and the dead body collapses forward with a bullet hole in the back of her head like the man who attacked her. Blood pours out of the wound and pools around the head and Zoey takes a step back. A pistol drops to the ground again and Wade looks up at his daughter the next time he has the strength to open his eyes.

"Z-zoey…" His voice is weak; barely above a whisper.

"I'm here, dad." She says through the tears forming in her eyes.

"Kill me, Zoey. I don't want to become like one of those freaks…"

Zoey shakes her head and some hair falls into her face. "I can't. You can't ask me to do this."

"Please. Do this for me. Don't let me become a monster…"

Wade watches as his daughter's trembling hands slowly reach for his gun. The warn metal of the barrel gives him a strange comfort as it's pressed into the bridge of his nose. His daughter's soft crying causes him to open his eyes and lift up his bloody hand to her. A smile forms when he feels Zoey's free hand squeeze against his.

"I love you, Zoey. You've made me so proud."

Zoey's hand continues to shake as her finger wraps around the trigger. "I love you too, dad." She closes her eyes and squeezes the trigger until she hears the bang. Her father's hand goes limp in her's and she drops the gun and begins to cry.

She sits in the same spot near her parent's bodies and continues to cry until she can't anymore. Eventually the tears stop flowing, but she still sobs mournfully. Everything she's ever known in her life has come crashing down around her in the couple hours since she's returned. Her childhood friend is sick with some infection, and her parents are dead; one by her own hands.

The distant rumble of an oncoming storm wakes Zoey up from a deep sleep that she never knew she fell into. She wants to stay with her parents, but she knows that the smell from the decaying bodies would attract predators that she just doesn't want to deal with right now. Once she gets to her feet and grabs her late father's pistol, she runs out of the house and shuts the door behind her. Another fit of crying is about to start, but the crying she heard earlier stops it before it even starts.

Something about that crying, to her, doesn't sound quite right. Something in the back of her mind tells her to run and before she can even react, her feet have started to take her away from her childhood home and the crying. When she finally stops running, she collapses onto a bus bench somewhere near the outskirts of a city. Her father's pistol rests inside a holster on her belt that she found near the headless body of what she guessed was someone infected with whatever's been going around.

What seems strange to her is that not only the head was missing, but it looked like the spray of a shotgun riddled the poor fool's chest. Whoever killed the man was either a very good shot, or just very lucky. The only thing worthwhile she was able to scavenge off of the corpse was a couple rounds out of a nearly empty pistol magazine. The pistol that the magazine belonged to, however, was nowhere in sight.

Zoey finally lifts her head and examines her surroundings. Just like the infected man, there are bodies filled with bullet holes scattered all around along with crashed cars and spent shells and casings. A burp makes her look up and she sees a morbidly obese man –or more accurately, what's left of him- waddling towards her. Her instinct kicks in and she raises her pistol and trains it on him. The man burps and groans and continues to get closer to her with each step.

She opens her mouth to give him a command to stop, but she jumps back when he suddenly spits up come type of bile on her. Her finger squeezes the trigger and once the bullet hits him, the entire upper half of his body suddenly explodes and the same bile spread out in every direction. He stumbles backwards a couple steps and trips over one of the nearly countless bodies. Luckily, her grip was enough that her pistol didn't go sliding out of her grasp.

"Oh, gross." She says as she gets to her feet and tries to wipe whatever is on her, off. "This is so nas-" A growl echoes out from all directions.

Zoey looks around and tries to wrap her mind around whatever the hell that noise just way. Suddenly, more people like the one who attacked her parents come out of nowhere and run full sprint towards her. She runs towards the city, shooting back at the slowly growing crowd behind her. Without thinking, she runs into a locked door leading to an apartment building.

Her shoulder takes the brunt of the impact, but the door gives way and flies open. She quickly shuts it behind her and uses whatever she can to barricade it. She backs up into something and quickly turns around and squeezes the trigger, but every time she does, she's met with an audible _click_. Of all of the times for her gun to be empty, it has to be now when she's face-to-face with another infected. Quickly ducking under the swinging arms, she manages to roll under the shambling shell of a woman and her hand falls onto what remains of a baseball bat.

Tucking the pistol under her belt, he grabs the broken bat and gets to her feet. The infected stumble towards her, but a single swing of her makeshift weapon crack the skull and drops her attacker. Unfortunately, the bat fares worse and a crack forms inside the wood and makes it useless. She sighs and slides down the wall closest to her. Now she has no weapon, a horde banging at the door, and nothing to eat.

"This day just keeps getting better and better…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I went in a completely separate direction than I originally intended with this chapter. I originally wanted to have Zoey meet one of the other Survivors; maybe Louis or Bill, but the Smoker part gave me an idea and a generic Survivor was created. One of the Survivors will appear in the next couple chapters, but I'm not going to say which one...**

**As usual, any good or bad reviews are welcomed.**

**Enjoy, and thanks for reading.**

**Chapter 3**

Zoey draws her attention to the corpse and the broken bat and sighs once again. First her friend is infected, then her parents are killed, and now she's being attacked by bloodthirsty, crazed people. Whatever this disease or infection is, she knows that CEDA has something to do with it. There's something about the unnatural speed at which it spreads and the almost deliberate areas where the highest infection rates are just doesn't seem right.

Her hands slap off the dirt and a small amount of the fat man's bile soon after she gets to her feet. The rumbling of her empty stomach forces her to start walking again in an attempt to try to find food. She can't go outside with the horde of people still banging at the door and the flickering lights further down the hall makes neither of her options seem all that good. Once she takes a deep breath and regains her composure, she makes her way down the hallway.

Every room that she checks has either a locked door, or is completely stripped of any type of food. Her luck starts to turn when she finds a working flashlight and a pack of batteries. Stuffing the batteries into the pockets in her hoodie, she continues her search through each room. Her new light-giving companion gives her some comfort when the lights on the second floor suddenly flicker and die.

However, with no weapon, her chances of surviving another infected are pretty low. The handle of one of the rare unlocked rooms turns easily, but before she can open it, she hears the same mournful sobbing from before. She opens it just enough that she can shine her light inside and what she sees causes her to gasp. There's a woman inside the room, but her sobbing doesn't quite sound right.

Zoey's light goes a little too high and the woman instantly stops sobbing and looks over at her guest. What little remains of her torn clothing shifts as she moves and her burning red eyes watch the non-infected closely. The witch slowly rises to her feet and begins to growl and her arms slowly move away from her face. The woman who bothered her simply watches, frozen.

Zoey watches the sobbing woman carefully, cautious not to make any sound. She swallows nervously when the claws come out and the woman growls in a threatening tone. Before she can react, she's suddenly pulled backwards and the door is slammed just as the witch begins to scream. Another survivor helps her to her feet and offers her a clip for her empty pistol. Zoey grabs the fresh ammo and replaces her empty clip.

"Thanks," She says as she switches the safety on before replacing it under her belt.

"No problem," The survivor says as he adjusts his hat. "You have to be careful with them Witches. They're a lot tougher than they look."

"A what?"

"A Witch," The survivor repeats as he loads a couple shells into his pump shotgun. "One of the Infected. Crazy little bitch will rip you apart if you get too close."

"What's an Infected?"

The survivor stops and looks up at her. "The Infected. Those… things that were once people. Blame CEDA for what they are now. It's better to put a bullet in their head than to try to understand them."

Zoey looks back at the door when the screaming goes back to the sobbing and she points at the door. "So that… woman in there is an Infected?"

The survivor cocks the shotgun and moves towards the door. "I wouldn't exactly call her a woman anymore, but yeah, she's an Infected. The best way to kill her is to crown her."

"How do I…crown her?"

The survivor slowly pushes the door open and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Watch, and learn."

The man crouches down and slowly moves towards the moaning infected. Once he's in range a couple feet behind her, he lifts up his shotgun and quietly stands up. The Witch only has enough time to gasp before the shell unleashes its entire payload into the back of her skull. Her sobs stop when her body falls limp to the ground and the survivor cocks the shotgun again and ejects the spent shell.

"See?" He says with his back to an open window. "It's easy; just creep up behind her with a shotgun and aim it at the back of her head. Squeeze the trigger and BAM! Dead Witch. I-" A slimy tongue suddenly wraps around his body and he is dragged out of the second story window. His shotgun falls out of his hands and lands on the Witch's corpse.

Zoey runs forward and draws her pistol. "What the hell…?"

"Shoot the tongue! Shoot the fucking tongue!"

She brings her pistol to bear and fires a single shot which misses by a mile. The next few also miss and after she takes a couple breathe to calm her nerves; she focuses on her next shot and fires. The tongue suddenly loosens and the man drops onto a car and his body falls still. Whatever grabbed him coughs a couple times before another tongue goes flying in Zoey's direction.

Running on instinct and adrenaline, she ducks under the tongue with less than a second to spare and slams the window shot. A pained, coughing scream outside is muffled and the tongue wiggles a couple times before being yanked through the window. Zoey remains under the window frame and out of her attacker's line of sight. She reaches for the shotgun and crawls away when the coughing finally dies down.

She slams the door behind her and takes a deep breath. The door downstairs is finally broken down and the growls of the horde quickly fill the stairwell. Most of them pass by, but a few are smart enough to charge for their earlier denied meal. Well, they're not that smart and learn that far too late when the hot lead spray of the shotgun launches them off of their feet and onto their backside. Any that attempt to get back up are met with a bullet in the head.

Zoey cautiously makes her way into the stairwell and looks up as the last few Infected run into the next few floors up. She decides against going up there, and instead she returns to the first floor. The broken door is devoid of any of the running freaks and she leaves the apartment building without looking back.

Whenever the echoing growl of an incoming horde can be heard, she's quick to find cover. The body of the earlier survivor is still lying lifeless on the roof of the car and she composes herself before searching through his pockets. A couple spare shotgun shells, a roll of duct tape, and a couple snack size bags of chips are all that she finds. She uses the duct tape to attack her flashlight to the barrel and opens one of the bags of chips and eats the whole thing.

"Well, that's one problem solved for now." She says to herself as she throws the empty bag on the ground.

She looks around for any place to spend the night when the rain suddenly starts. A small, mom-and-pop store catches her attention and she runs straight towards it. The store is clear and the power is still on, but she turns off the lights to not attract any unwanted visitors in the middle of the night. Apparently, someone else must have used this same store because a couple of bedrolls are laid out behind a steel door pained a crimson red.

Zoey sets her guns down next to one of the bed rolls and shuts the door. The steel bar lands with a loud clang and she cringes, but when no horde appears, she makes her way over to her bedroll and lies down. Sleep comes quickly and she drifts off, dreaming about her life before it went to shit. A smile forms when good memories of her and her parents appear.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Shortest chapter so far. I thought I would start this one off with everyone's favorite friendly towering Special Infected. Louis makes his appearance and he's his usual upbeat self. Now Zoey has a traveling companion that won't die by the end of the paragraph. Isn't that nice? Bill or Francis won't appear for a while, i'm sorry to say.  
**

**As usual, any good or bad reviews are welcomed.**

**Enjoy, and thanks for reading.**

**Chapter 4**

Zoey wakes with a start when an inhuman roar echoes out, followed closely by what sounds like endless gunfire. Everything around her seems to shake and the broken computer monitors on the shelves nearby jump off and fall towards her. The screens shatter when they slam against the ground, but luckily her quick reflexes allowed her to roll out of the way in time. The roar erupts again, but it seems to be much closer this time.

"Run! Shoot it!" A strangely upbeat voice calls out, and is quickly followed by more gunfire.

The metal door suddenly bursts open and a couple men run in and slam it shut behind them. One of the men has a dark skin tone, a white shirt with a loose red tie and half untucked, and dark pants. One of the legs is torn just above the ankle and his black shoes are covered in dirt, blood, and who knows what else. The other man has a lighter skin tone and looks like the survivor Zoey met earlier, just a lot older.

The first man looks at her and motions for her to get up and grab her guns, shich she does. "What the hell is that noise?" She asks when another roar erupts out of nowhere.

"Name's Louis, by the way. I don't know what that thing is, but it absorbs bullets like some kind of tank."

All three move away from the door as a huge slab of concrete is thrown at a surprising speed past. Whatever made the noise moves over to the door and stops in front of it. Zoey can guess this is another Infected, but this one is only wearing blue jeans that look like they're struggling to stay together. The Infected also looks like it drinks steroids like water. It doesn't seem to have a lower jaw, so its tongue hangs out and there seems to be a hole on a part of its chest.

Zoey leans out and looks through the bars on the door. She's quickly pulled back by Louis. "What the fuck is that thing?!" She tires hard to keep her voice low.

"I told you that it absorbs bullets like some kind of tank. Maybe that's what we should call it. A Tank."

"It sure as hell doesn't give up easy." The other survivor finally speaks. "We emptied almost everything we had into it and it didn't even slow it down."

The Tank slams its fists into the ground, which makes everything shake violently. The survivors watch the Infected as it doesn't move from its spot. It growls and continues to look around for the prey it's suddenly lost. Everyone knows that there's only one solution; either the Tank needs to die, or they need to escape.

"I'll distract it, and you guys shoot it." The survivor says as he cocks his shotgun, which draws the Tank's attention. He kicks the door open and runs past it, aiming his gun backwards and firing. "Come and get me, you towering freak!"

The Tank roars and chases after its prey on its knuckles. When it rips up another slab of concrete and lifts it above its head, Zoey and Louis duck out of the safe room and start firing. The Tank quickly turns around and starts lumbering towards its new targets, but the sudden shatter of a Molotov cocktail engulfs the giant in a layer of flame. A pissed off roar shakes the surroundings and the Tank changes direction and charges for the man that just lit it on fire.

Zoey and Louis keep a constant stream of shells and bullets firing into the hulking frame. The Tank eventually reaches the survivor and grabs him in his inhumanly strong grip and squeezes. The survivor lets out a scream and his body is tossed into a car and the force tips it onto its side. Another pained roar erupts, but the Tank finally gives in and collapses to the ground, lifeless.

The corpse still burns and Zoey and Louis eventually stop firing. Cautiously, they make their way over to the body and Louis taps it with his gun. When they're sure that it's actually dead, they make their way over to the broken body of the other survivor. Louis closes the corpse's eyes and shakes his head.

"Poor guy," Louis begins to search the corpse. Once he finds a first aid kit, he tosses it to Zoey. "You'll get more use out of it than he did. Well, at least that… Tank is dead and we can live to see another sunrise."

Zoey can't help but giggle at this man's strangely upbeat attitude and she takes an instant liking to him. "You're a cheery one, aren't you?"

Louis looks up at her and smiles a little. "Gotta be. If you get depressed, then you won't survive. Besides, there might be a cure one day for whatever this… infection is."

Throughout the past couple days; Zoey has had to fend for herself. Every person she's met has either been an infected, another short lived survivor, or some freakishly different version of the more common infected. This man that she just met seems to be immune to the infection, just like she is. Besides, his cheery outlook is exactly what she needs right now to help her cope.

Louis and Zoey return to the safe room and restock their ammo from the pile that was left by the previous survivors. Louis grabs another first aid kit that he stashed his first time through. When he is searching through the small bathroom attached to the safe room, he notices a medicine cabinet hanging on the wall above the sink. Inside, he spots a small white bottle and grabs it without hesitation.

"Pills here!" He shouts, and then quickly covers his mouth.

"What was that?" Zoey asks as she loads the last couple shells into her shotgun.

Louis stuffs the bottle into one of his pockets. "Nothing."

Zoey shrugs her shoulders and cocks the gun and gets to her feet. "So, where should we go now?"

"Well, that tank killed my road companion and I heard a Smoker somewhere up the street."

"What's a Smoker?"

"An Infected with a very long tongue."

Zoey's mind instantly returns to the memory of the man that killed the Witch getting pulled out of the building by a long slimy tongue. She heard the coughing, but never thought to call the Infected a Smoker. She laughs a bit when she realizes that she could have started calling it that. Survival was the most important thing on her mind at the time, though.

An unfamiliar shriek echoes from the roof above them and a shadow jumps with a blurring speed from one rooftop to another. By the time either of them have caught a glimpse of whatever it was and run out of the safe room, it's long gone. The shriek echoes out again, but there is no leaping shadow that follows it this time. Instead, it is just an unnatural silence.

"What the hell was that?" Zoey asks after a couple of minutes.

"No idea," Louis answers after switching the safety off of his assault rifle. "Never heard it before."

"Keep an ear out for whatever it is. We need to keep moving or the Infected will catch up to us."

"I couldn't agree more. Let's get moving, girl."


End file.
